Parazoa

Parazoa
Temporal range:
Sponge
Scientific classification
(obsolete as paraphyletic)
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Parazoa
Grant & Todd, 1838
Subgroups

List of ediacaran genera for more.

Synonyms

Parazoa (Parazoa, gr. Παρα-, para, "next to", and ζωα, zoa, "animals") is an obsolete subkingdom that is located at the base of the phylogenetic tree of the animal kingdom in opposition to the subkingdom Eumetazoa; they group together the most primitive forms, characterized by not having proper tissues or where, in any case, these tissues are only partially differentiated. It generally includes a single phylum, Porifera, which lack muscles, nerves and internal organs, which in many cases resembles a cell colony rather than a multicellular organism itself. All other animals are eumetazoans and agnotozoans (Agnotozoans are possibly paraphyletic or even nonexistent in studies), which do have differentiated tissues.